The new documentary Muscle Shoals recalls how interracial harmony in tumultuous times made possible a new kind of music. Leading African-American artists traveled to North Alabama — not exactly a place they thought they "d be welcome in the civil rights era — to jam with an all-white crew of session players. In little rooms near the wide Tennessee River, they perfected soul and anticipated Southern rock. (Muscle Shoals reveals how Duane Allman and Wilson Pickett invented that style, covering "Hey Jude.") The English rock eminence Elvis Costello has long admired the Muscle Shoals, Ala., sound, the influence of which shows up in his more soulful efforts. But it took a Philly group shacking up in New York to help him work the Muscle Shoals magic in reverse.

Out Sept. 17, Wise Up Ghost is Costello "s collaboration with The Roots, hip-hop "s most admired live act and a recording venture as conceptually adventurous as Costello himself. Recorded in a year "s worth of experimental sessions after the 59-year-old bard met the band as a guest in its television home, Late Night With Jimmy Fallon, the album sounds like the best of Costello "s stuff and like nothing he "s done before. Working with musicians who "ve figured out how to apply hip-hop principles to a band dynamic, Costello locates himself within that framework to produce some of the most focused and visionary work of his later career.

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